Last Post for 2011

Wow. This is my last post of 2011. 

Kinda mind blowing how fast the year went. 

I am truly grateful for all the incredible experiences I had! 

Since I'm in the mood for pictures, and because it makes sense during the Holidays, here are some more.

Our ward Christmas party. Both of us were just getting over the Attack of the Stomach Bug, so we weren't feeling spectacular. Despite this, we still got out on the dance floor and had a good time.

Grandma D. sent this amazing Christmas outfit for Bubs! We love it and it was perfect for Christmas and family pictures!

Oh yeah, the pants don't quite fit yet. 

No biggie.

Remember that one time Bubs got in a fight with a chair?

The chair won, in case you were wondering. 

Just another "boy mark" painted on his sweet forehead. 

I think that's number 493 since he's starting walking... 

Oh, and by the way, he now has 2 molars.

No joke.

His teeth total is currently: 10

Of course we had to take pictures of ourselves.

Yes, I do gangsta lips when I take pictures of myself.

Yes, my husband has a very large tongue.

Yes, we're awesome.

Our brother in law (to-be) wanted in on the fun.

Somehow he positioned himself perfectly,

And the camera thought it'd be better to focus on his face.

Go figure.

We made Amish bread.

Lots of Amish bread.

3 double batches of Amish bread.

Way too much Amish bread.

Most was given away. Thank Goodness.

Our last day in KC we had a little cake eating practice run.

He did not like that hat.

He couldn't quite figure out what to do with the cake.

We had to help him a little bit.

A lot actually.

He started to get the hang of it, but I'm not sure he actually really ingested anything. 

I guess it's better that way, right?

For Christmas this year, I think everyone decided I need to cook.

Or maybe they thought I really enjoy cooking, which I do, so they got me cooking stuff.

I got the Our Best Bites Calendar (with recipes) and Our Best Bites cookbook from my brother.

I got a super cute apron and Our Best Bites cookbook from my mother in law (yes, that's 2 of the same cookbook).

Mister Man and I got a KitchenAid from my parents. 

Needless to say, I was thrilled! 

Still am, actually.

The cookbook looks incredible. Every. Single. Recipe. looks amazing!

(my sister took the extra copy so now we can be cooking buds)

And of course, we cannot forget this:

I used it for the first time last night to make cookies. 

Love.

Though it will take some time to figure out how to work with it. 

I may or may not have had flour all over everywhere during the process of cookies.

Who cares? Not me!

Highlights of 2011:

-having a baby boy in January!

-finally overcoming the post baby roller coaster of emotions.

-surviving an insane season of Tornadic activity in the Midwest

-first trip to Arkansas.

-Fair St. Louis and fireworks on 4th of July

-countless trips to the zoo, Forest Park, surrounding parks, botanical gardens, and city gardens

-making really great girlfriends and getting together for lunch dates and craft nights

-Mister Man finishing 4/10th's of Chiropractic school!

-visiting my parents in KC many, many times

-having Mister Man's parents visit here 3 times

-a trip back to Utah

-enjoying the company of our in laws only 20 minutes away!

-and so much more!

May 2012 be an even better year! I'm counting on it. Are you?

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! Hope you have a wonderful, safe, holiday! 

Christmas week

Well, life happens sometimes. I can't really comprehend the fact that my last post was dated December 12 and it is now December 26. I can only think about everything that has happened in that space of time.

Some of the things include:
-a 24 hour stomach bug that hit hard and fast. First me, then my man. Bubs didn't seem too affected by it.
-Mister Man finished finals and started his break until January 10th (yay!)
-we made lots of Christmas treats, wrapped lots of presents, and packed for our trip
-I gave the Christmas lesson in YW the week before Christmas
-And lots of other random things I can't remember.

Then we left for our trek across the state to visit my family for Christmas. It rained.
For 2 1/2 straight hours of driving.
And when I say rained, I really mean poured.
Not. Fun.

Since we've been here, we've been busy doing all kinds of crazy things.
-cooking more treats
-shooting guns at my aunt and uncle's
-shopping, shopping, shopping (while I stayed home with the boys)
-two days of different people getting hit with the stomach bug (we were exempt)
-lots of Halo playing (for the boys)
-a visit to Santa at the mall
-a paintballing trip for the boys
-a pedicure trip for the girls
-Christmas!!

After visiting Santa.

Pictures of that to come.

Getting ready for paintball!

80's Flashback!

None of the boys came prepared with paintball-able clothes, so they pulled out some of dad's old stuff.

Bubs likes Oklahoma Joe's too!!

The whole Fam Damily at Okie Joe's on Christmas Eve.

So. Delicious. 

Better than Pappy's.

By a long shot.

Nothing says Christmas like a Halo game in the background.

I've never seen so many presents under a tree before. 

And they were all opened Christmas Eve.

Yes, we're non-traditional.

It's been a fun, crazy, busy, trip and we've enjoyed almost every second of it!

Now if we could just remind Bubs that he knows how to sleep for 12 hours straight without waking up to eat, we would be even happier. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Little Moments

There's a country song I love called "Little Moments"

When I was a teenager and dating, I especially loved it. 

It was one of those cuddle and snuggle with a boy songs. 

I knew every word. 

Still do. Kinda.

The best line of the song is "Yeah, I live for little moments like that." 

I know we all have Little Moments in our life. 

Here are some of my most recent:

-When my very active baby cuddles on my lap and falls asleep in my arms.

-When my husband listens quietly to an emotional outburst and then softly and tenderly reminds me of -exactly what I should be doing instead of what I am doing. 

-When I see a six year old girl, complete stranger, hang her face out the window of a car on a cold afternoon and then proceed to frantically wave with an ear to ear grin.

-When my husband surprises me with flowers, making dinner, and renting a movie because he knows I had a rough day and that I need a break.

-When my baby sits on my lap for more than 10 minutes playing a game with me.

-When my baby has giggle fits and keels over on my lap during the same game.

-When my husband comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist while I finish the dishes.

-When I see my baby happily playing in a box.

-When I hear a four year old boy say "Look, Mommy! Jesus gave us bread!"

-When my hubby says "Go get mom!" and my baby walks around the corner, across the room, and comes right to my lap with a big smile.
-When I laugh my guts out with my sister-in-law for no real good reason while everyone else looks at us like we're crazy.

-When my husband holds me and tells me everything is going to be alright.

-When I feel the sweet peace, comfort, and assurance that only comes from God, letting me know that I did something right or that I'm doing okay.

Yeah, I live for little moments like that.

Cousins. Bet ya couldn't tell.

Everyone needs a Bubs hug!

Apparently this little Dragon hates Mizzou so much he was scared of his little Tigger friend.

Nothin' like a bare baby bum.

Instead of helping, I took a picture.

I like to focus on the most important things.

"Hey mom, need a wipe?"

Chiropractoring.

And because we all know, the only thing a kid needs to be happy is a box.

(this was not posed nor the smile encouraged. he was really this happy)

Finding my Identity

The dishes are done.
Dinner is cleaned up.
A load of laundry just finished in the washer.
Bubs is down for the night (but still whining).
Mister Man went to study.

And I'm here.

Sometimes I blog for me. To remind me of things that are more important and things I've neglected. This is one of those times.

Life is not always easy. I don't like sugar coating things. I don't like portraying the image that being a mom is a walk in the park. I don't feel right about trying to convince everyone I have it all together. Because I don't.

Every day I learn something new about myself. Oftentimes those lessons are hard to swallow.

I want alot of things.
I want to be perfect. I want to have it all together. I want my house to be clean every second of every day. I want to always be cheerful about doing the dishes, laundry, and cleaning the bathrooms. I want to spend hours studying my scriptures. I want to not worry about my bank account and not wonder if we'll have enough to pay all the bills next month. I want to be debt free. I want to know and understand deep doctrine of the gospel. I want to talk, visit, and spend time with friends without those moments of feeling awkward, feeling left out, not knowing where I fit in. I want to spend time reading blogs, finding new recipes, and staying in touch with friends, but I want to not be sucked in for hours on end. I want to be the perfect wife who has a fairy tale romance with her husband. I want to be gorgeous and skinny with perfect hair, skin, and makeup. I want people to like me.

I often want all of these things at the same time.

In reality, most of these things, in fact probably all of these things, are never going to happen all at once.

As a teenager I thought that after I got married, life would be easier.
I got married and life brought new challenges.
A couple years later I thought after I had a baby I would fit in more and relate better to people around me.
I had a baby and I'm still trying to identify where I fit in.

I worry about what people think of me.
What if I say the wrong thing? What if I do the wrong thing? What if I try to tell a story that I think is funny and it comes across super lame? What if I show up wearing the wrong outfit? What if I write something on my blog and it makes someone think differently about me?

I think part of life is identifying who you really are as a person. When I was a teenager I felt the identity of busy, dancer, outgoing, fun, girl. When I was in college I felt the identity of ballroom, teaching, boy crazy, and disliked by some of my roommates. Right after I got married I felt newly wed, good wife, good homemaker, invited others over alot, spent time with family, kept busy with school, taught in my own classroom.

Now that we've moved away from family and we've had a baby, I think I'm struggling a little more to find my identity. I'm struggling to understand where I fit in with my friends. I'm figuring out how to interact with people and not come across as young or immature. I'm learning how to be a mom and take care of my child in social situations. I'm still learning what my role is as a young women leader. I'm trying to figure out how to balance everything.

I really don't have it all together and I'm far from perfect.

All of these things get really overwhelming really quickly. Wouldn't it just be easier to not care what someone thinks of you? Never wonder what people are saying behind your back? Never second guess things you've said or done? My husband is really good at this. I'm not.

Lucky for me, in the bigger picture, many of these things really don't matter that much.

What matters is that I know I am a daughter of God. 

When I can look at myself in the mirror, recognize my greatness, realize my potential, and understand God's love for me, then other things will fall into place.

Who cares if my kitchen is a disaster, the laundry isn't done, the bathrooms haven't been cleaned for months, and my bank account is low. In the end, it doesn't matter.

Life is too short to be so worried and consumed about what other people think of me. Too short for me to focus on whether or not I said or wore the right thing.

What matters most is my relationship with Christ, Heavenly Father, my husband, and myself. 

I hope that as I continue on in this journey called life, I can learn the things I need to to bring me closer to my Savior and understanding God's plan for me. I think if I can do that, I will feel more peace and confidence in other situations. May each of you, if you so desire, strive to do the same.

Moroni 10:32

Yea, ^acome unto Christ, and be ^bperfected in him, and ^cdeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and ^dlove God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be^eperfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God

Learning is growing

Do you ever have those days where you decide to check out your bank account, just to see what's going on, and suddenly it feels like you swallowed a bowling ball that's settled in your stomach?

Yeah, that just happened to me.

I feel like taking back every Christmas present we bought, selling everything we own, and crawling into a cave.

Not really. That was probably TMI.

Anyway.

It's so interesting to me how life works. It's interesting how you can learn things about other people through their comments and actions, and then learn more about yourself by the way you react. I've learned alot about myself in the past 6 months. Maybe that's because I birthed a child and I'm learning how to raise him. Perhaps it has something to do with Mister Man enrolling in graduate school. Or maybe it's because I've changed. Alot.


I've also learned alot about how Heavenly Father answers prays.
In my meager experience, prayers are not usually answered right away or in the way you expect.
But they're always answered.


Now my brain seems to have a hit a brick wall en route to anything worth writing.
Feel free to check out the new page I added about the MBS Challenge!

I'm not entirely sure what happened...

"I'm gonna get you!"

Houston, we have a walker

It's true, folks, our dear sweet Bubs has decided to start walking.

AHHHHHH!

He's been on the verge of independent walking for some time now. He first cruised around on his tootsies clinging to anything that provided any sort of stability for him. Then he realized he could let go for a second and balance on his own. Then he realized he could take about 2 steps before crashing forward. Then one day it happened.

He took more than 2 steps without crashing.
He moved slowly, checking his balance every couple steps.
He took enough steps to travel the length of our (very small) kitchen.
Then he figured out how to move from sitting to standing to walking without holding onto anything.

And then he walked across our living room.

Now he's walking all over the place.

I think he still prefers crawling since he's better at it.
But he knows what's up when it comes to walking, thought he's still working on long distance trips.
And he walks like he's had a few too many cold ones.

It's oh so dang cute.

Since when did he get so big?

What do stats and a table have to do with eachother?

If you have a blog, have you ever looked at your stats?

I just did.

Guess what I found?

14,478 page views in all time history.

I think I might throw a party when I hit 15,000 views.

Believe it or not, I've had this blog since Mister Man and I were engaged in the summer of 2008.
I posted about lame stuff back then.
Things like missing my fiance, excitement about getting married, and mushy lovey stuff like that.
Lame.

Now I post about cool things.
Like how Mister Man brought home a chiropractic adjusting table last night.
And by that I mean: massage table.

But really I mean a nice, firm yet soft, table, that has a hole for your face and the ability to let him adjust me not on the floor.
(and you other chiro wives know what I'm talking about when I say how nice it is to be adjusted on a table and not on the floor!)

When he brought it home I said: "Merry Christmas. We can take all the presents back now."
He said: "You can take your presents back since this benefits mostly you."

What?
Who are we kidding? It totally benefits me more, but it's great practice for him!
And it could benefit him more if we wanted to pay another $90,000 and have me go back to school to learn what he's learning.

But, I'd rather buy a house.

And now, since it's 9:12 pm, and instead of doing dishes I played Mexi-Train with my hunny, I think I'll go scrub the raw chicken guts off my knife and cutting board, load the dishwasher, and head to bed.

I'm really glad that sentence was completely grammatically correct in every way possible.
Not.